this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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One explanation could be that the time machine is anchored to the ๐ gravity well, so it can find the position based on where the ๐ is. In said setting, you're also limited to only traveling whole years.
That depends on the method of time travel, which is fictional anyway. Gravity is a wave and may be a particle as well, so the same as light. So, presumably, any method of traveling through time would travel through a medium outside of the known universe, meaning that gravity may not leak into that dimension.
Though, a good example would be the HG Wells Time Machine version of time travel, where the machine doesn't leave 3D space and simply scrolls through the time dimension, tied to (presumably) the Earth's gravity well.
If you based it on the Sun's gravity well, the Earth moves around the Sun at 30km a second. So what you really have is a great way to explore the solar system by placing yourself at points in time that create gravity slingshots to send you anywhere with no fuel. But you do need a spaceship. If you miscalculate the Earth's orbit by 1 second, you'd be at the edge of space or in the Earth's mantle so deep no one would ever find you, so the safest place to stop would be in orbit.